There has been known a printing system that prints on a print medium by a digital printer or the like via an RIP (Raster Image Processor) process that converts print data, which describes a printer output image in a page description language, to raster data printable by the printer.
In such a printing system, the processing speed of the RIP process varies depending on an information amount of print data prepared for a print target by page. Also, in the case where the processing speed of the RIP process is lower than the printing speed of a printer side, “waiting time” occurs in the printer. When the “waiting time” occurs, the operation rate of the printer is reduced. For this reason, there is proposed a printing control device that estimates a RIP processing time to prepare an execution schedule for multiple print jobs on the basis of the estimated RIP processing time, and thereby efficiently schedules the print jobs to efficiently operate a printer (see Patent Literature 1).
FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating a raster data transfer operation from an RIP processing part 436 to a printer 300 in a printing control device of a conventional printing system. FIG. 7(a) illustrates the case of writing raster data after the RIP process in a hard disk 407, and then reading the raster data from the hard disk 407 to transfer the raster data to the printer 300, whereas FIG. 7(b) illustrates the case of temporarily storing raster data after the RIP process in a memory 402, and then transferring the raster data to the printer 300.
In the conventional printing system, the raster data generated by the RIP process is stored in the memory (main storage device) 402 of a personal computer, which functions as the printing control device, or written and stored in the hard disk (auxiliary storage device) 407, and then transferred to the printer 300. As illustrated in FIG. 7(a), in the case of writing the raster data after the RIP process in the hard disk 407, and then reading the raster data from the hard disk 407 to transfer the raster data to the printer 300, a large amount of data can be stored in the hard disk 407. On the other hand, as illustrated in FIG. 7(b), in the case of temporarily storing the raster data after the RIP process in the memory 402, and then transferring the raster data to the printer 300 (on-the-fly method), as compared with storing in the hard disk 407, only a short data access time is required, and therefore a time from the RIP process to printing can be shortened.